The prior art has included numerous sprayers for agricultural or other uses having tanks that may be worn on the back of a worker who is operating the sprayer. These devices are generally referred to herein as “backpack sprayers.”
The backpack sprayers of the prior art have included both manually operated sprayers and power sprayers. The manually operated backpack sprayers have typically incorporated a hand pump having a handle that is manually moved up and down to operate the sprayer. The power backpack sprayers have typically incorporated a battery-powered electric motor that drives the sprayer pump.
Certain recent improvements relating to backpack type sprayers are described in Applicant's U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/767,993 (filed Feb. 22, 2013) and 61/769,706 (filed Feb. 26, 2013), the entire disclosures of which are expressly incorporated by reference.
Further examples of backpack type sprayers devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,309,028 (Langhans et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,707 (Wirz), U.S. Pat. No. D591,387 (Campbell), U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,199 (Restive), U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,618 (Restive), U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,884 (Restive), U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,791 (Leer), U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,015 (Black), U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,333 (Luchsinger), U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,714 (Luchsinger) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,416 (Pagliali et al.)
There remains a need in the art for the development of new manual and power sprayers that incorporate features or components that overcome problems or shortcomings associated with such sprayers of the prior art.